A gravel company can dig below the water table on Beaver Loop

A gravel company won permission Wednesday to dig two pits below the water table on Beaver Loop Road, over the objections of a neighbor who says his two wells are at risk.

The Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-0 to approve the pits for Colaska, which does business locally as QAP.

Curt Wilcox, who lives nearby, told the commission the company had already dug up a buffer zone. "Not 2 weeks after receiving this transfer, they actually dug up the buffer zone," he said. He pointed to a Fish and Game violation, hazardous materials stored near a stream and a state finding that the operation exceeded particulate limits. He played recordings of the backup alarms at night.

Nick Stoller of Colaska said the lots feed construction projects through the company's existing pit, and that keeping the standard 200-foot setbacks would cost about 40 percent of the gravel it could otherwise reach. The commission granted two variances cutting those setbacks to 50 feet, each opening roughly 18.5 additional acres. No commissioner asked him about the violations Wilcox raised, though existing conditions already bar hazardous materials near wetlands.

The commission attached two conditions. Equipment already required to carry backup alarms must use white noise alarms instead of beepers. And the company cannot run more than seven consecutive nights without notifying city administration.

Digging runs four years, then continues as needed for an estimated 15 more. The pits are to be reclaimed as ponds.

Appeals close in 15 days.